In the early 1980’s, Mark Crabtree was a school leaver looking for a job. By good fortune his next- door neighbour at the time was Howard Lumby, the owner of Yorkshire Spray, a well-known figure in the industry and he offered 17-year-old Mark his first opportunity in the sector.
Mark became apprentice to Howard and began to learn about the industry under his expertise. He then moved to Mason Morley and after a time working for himself, went to SIE Industrial.
2001 Mark was head hunted by Waterline, part of Huntings plc. Mark enjoyed his time there but it was a large Plc, and it soon became apparent that he preferred the greater autonomy and more hands-on approach running a small business could offer.
2003 Mark founded Spray Plant 2K Ltd, working alongside our colleagues at Spray Plant UK, but in the more specialist area of plural component materials, products and services.
‘He pulled up in the car leaving the car door open. He walked down the drive with a fax machine under his arm and the lead trailing on the floor; we wondered what we’d gotten ourselves into, but we soon realised Mark’s strength isn’t operational processes, its innovation and unrivalled equipment and materials knowledge and he’s just a genuinely good bloke”.
Ben Smith, Trevor’s son and now General Manager of Spray Plant UK remembers Mark’s first day.
Mark’s expertise within the industry is unrivalled and proved fortuitus for the rapid success of the business. Mark is the lynch pin between materials manufacturers and equipment users and most (if not all) of his industry contacts were happy to continue to utilise his expertise.
The team rapidly expanded to include work and office managers, engineers and office staff but Mark has never been the type to play ‘Boss’ and has always been happy to pull on his overalls in the workshop or travel to site for a generic breakdown.
That said, Mark’s unique expertise has seen Spray Plant 2K become involved in some highly specialist projects including: the Nord Stream Project offshore, supporting our renewable sector with installations at blade factories, and the Wheatstone project in Australia. Mark also had the original concept for the Graco XM-PFP, which he then developed in conjunction with Graco, and latterly the Graco Electric XP. Spray Plant are currently the only company to have had input and knowledge of the latter machine.
As well as celebrating continued success and growth 2022 was also a very difficult year, with Mark suffering a stroke. The team really stepped up, the Company is still very much here and strong, and thankfully, Mark has made huge steps forward in his recovery and recently came home from hospital.
2023 Celebrating 20 years in business, we’d like to thank all our customers, associates, contacts, colleagues, friends and family for their support – we couldn’t have made it with you!